Architect/ developer Anbau nabs three UES parcels for $33M

Clockwise from top left: 1715 First Avenue (center), Thomas Gammino, Lipa Lieberman and David Schechtman

Anbau Enterprises has snapped up a trio of Upper East Side buildings that it will redevelop for $33 million, a source told The Real Deal. The parcels, at First Avenue and 89th Street, offer 88,000 square feet for residential development, the source said.

Most of the site had been set to become condominiums in 2008, before the economic downtown. In 2011, owner Uri Foxbrunner defaulted on mortgages for two of the properties — at 1711 and 1713 First Avenue — and sold the third, at 1715 First Avenue, to a limited liability corporation for $5 million.

Minuit Partners, a Connecticut-based investment firm, bought the debt on 1711 and 1713 as well as a parcel at 354 East 89th Street; the deal, also in 2011, totaled a little more than $9 million, according to city records. At the time, Foxbrunner claimed the three lots had a value of $16 million, $2 million more than the $14 million in principal and interest that he owed.

Eastern Consolidated broker David Schechtman confirmed he had arranged the sale with colleague Lipa Lieberman and Thomas Gammino of Massey Knakal Realty Services.

Anbau, which doubles as architect and developer on many of its projects, did not respond to a request for comment. In September, the firm picked up a 5,420-square-foot space at 11 East 26th Street, near Madison Square Park.